A Grab Bag of Horror News, 27 Jul to 2 Aug 2025

A selection of things that caught our attention in the world of horror this week

Bite-Sized Horror News

Horror Book Bits

Congratulations to author Tim Waggoner for winning the Adapted Novel category in the 2025 Scribe Awards with his novel, Terrifier 2.
Simon & Schuster UK has a new imprint, Solstice Books, which will start releasing science fiction, fantasy, and horror books in 2026.
New horror movie novelizations coming in 2026 from Christian Francis include survival horror Waxwork, supernatural sci-fi horror The Dark Side of the Moon, monster horror The Monster Squad, zombie horror Fido, and psychological horror Nightwish. Also see our list of Horror book release dates for ones still to come in 2025.

Horror Movie Morsels

Witch horror movie Mother of Flies won the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film in Fantasia’s 2025 Juried Awards. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.
A Quiet Place III will arrive in July 2027.
Regal Cinemas are airing all 8 of The Conjuring movies between 18 Aug and 3 Sep 2025, in the lead up to the release of The Conjuring: Last Rites on 5 Sep 2025.
Slasher Trash: The Ultimate Slasher Documentary celebrates rare and obscure slasher movies from the 1970s and 80s. Digital or Blu-ray copies can be preordered up until 14 Aug 2025.
Gremlins writer Chris Columbus says he’s written a script for a new Gremlins movie and it’s waiting for Steven Spielberg to read and approve it.
Michael C. Williams says that Lionsgate and Blumhouse have listened to the concerns of the three original Blair Witch Project Everyone now seems to be happy.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Friday the 13th fans were treated to never-before-seen archival photos from the Barsamian family.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Robbie Barsamian confirmed that a new Friday the 13th movie and video game are in early development.

Horror TV Treats

A TV series based on Eli Roth’s Hostel survival horror movies is in development and will air on Peacock, although there’s no release date as yet.
The first episode of Alien: Earth is showing for free in selected cinemas on Wed, 6 Aug, ahead of the official premiere on FX | Hulu on 12 Aug 2025. There are limited tickets available, so get in quick if you’re interested.

Horror Game Goodies

Paranormal horror game The Medium is getting a movie adaptation.
VILE: Exhumed has been banned from Steam.

Horror Festival Fare

Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights’ last haunted house announcement is WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks. The announcement video dares you to “Go head-to-head with The Wyatt Sicks as they lure you through the ominous doorway to their shadowy realm. You’re about to meet your match.”

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.”
Joss Whedon

Writing Horror

Return of the Nigerian Prince: A New Twist on Book Marketing Scams by Victoria Strauss (Writer Beware)

Some places accepting submissions

PseudoPod
Pays: 8 cents per word for original fiction, $100 short story reprints, $20 flash fiction reprints
Looking for: Dark, weird horror fiction
Submissions close: 12 Aug 2025

Tales of Horror magazine
Pays: 6 cents per word, $40 per poem
Theme: Contemporary literature that would fit just as comfortably in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Upcoming submission calls

Into the Deep, Dark Woods anthology (Word Fire Press)
Pays: 6 cents per word
Theme: The magic and mystery of the primeval wilderness, where tangled branches create a foreboding canopy
Submissions open 1 Sep and close 15 Oct 2025

“I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror TV Trailers

Talamasca: The Secret Order. Dark fantasy horror. A secretive society tracks supernatural beings such as witches, vampires, and werewolves. AMC, AMC+, 26 Oct 2025

IT: Welcome to Derry, traileer 2. Supernatural horror. You’ll love Derry so much, you’ll never leave. HBO Max, Oct 2025

Wayward. Psychological horror. After an escape attempt from an academy for troubled teens, two students join forces with a police officer to unearth the town’s dark and deeply rooted secrets. Netflix, 25 Sep 2025

Horror Movie Trailers

American Sweatshop. Psychological horror. When a content moderator witnesses a crime in a video, she is lured away from the safety of her keyboard as she obsessively seeks to hold someone accountable. VOD, 19 Sep 2025

Buried Alive. Creature horror. In pursuit of a gang of violent criminals, a police officer finds herself caught in twisted game of life and death. VOD, 19 Aug 2025

The Conjuring: Last Rites. Supernatural horror. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront. Cinema, 5 Sep 2025

Hell House LLC: Lineage. Supernatural horror. When people around Vanessa begin to die, she uncovers her terrifying connection to the Abaddon Hotel, the Carmichael Manor and the mysterious murders that have been occurring for decades. Cinema, 20 Aug 2025

The Jester 2. Halloween horror. On Halloween, twisted trickster, the Jester, forces teen magician Max into a deadly game where surviving means outwitting a killer who’s truly magic. Limited release, 15 Sep 2025

Lilly Lives Alone. Psychological horror. Ten years after her daughter’s tragic death, the traumatic ghosts of Lilly’s past force her to face the depths of her manic madness. VOD, 22 Aug 2025

The Quiet Ones. Psychological horror. A university professor and his team conduct an experiment on a young woman, resulting in haunting phenomena that defy scientific explanation. VOD, 5 Aug 2025

Somnium. Psychological horror. Gemma takes the overnight shift at a sleep clinic where dreams are made real, but soon finds herself trapped in its web of dark secrets. VOD, 9 Sep 2025

Whistle. Cursed object horror. High school students stumble upon a cursed ancient Aztec Death Whistle and discover that blowing the whistle summons their future deaths to hunt them down. Release date TBA

Witchboard, new trailer. Supernatural horror. Emily discovers an ancient pendulum board, once used to summon spirits. Her fiancé seeks help from occult expert, but the expert has secrets of his own, knowing the fateful bloodlines that binds them all to the Witchboard. Cinema, 15 Aug 2025

Horror Game Trailers

Co-op Kaiju Horror Cooking. Monster horror. Medieval monks catapult improvised meals into the maws of rampaging monsters to prevent the apocalypse. Available now

Dead by Daylight x The Walking Dead. Zombie horror. Access Rick and Michonne and different outfits, including the Daryl Dixon Legendary Outfit. Available now

I Hate This Place. Survival horror. Elena and her friend unwittingly summon a malevolent force. Outmatched and hunted in a hostile world, stay vigilant, loot your surroundings, and pick your battles carefully against formidable foes, many of which hunt you by sound. Releases Q4 2025

“Books are the mile markers of my life. Some people have family photos or home movies to record their past. I’ve got books.”
Kristin Hannah, The Great Alone

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

12 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, vampire, cult, space, western, creature, and horror poetry and art

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 27 Jul to 2 Aug 2025

“All I need is a good book, my imagination, and I am set free. I’m in literature heaven.”
Belle Aurora, Willing Captive

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

9 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, pirate slasher, comedy, cannibal, sci-fi, and body horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 27 Jul to 2 Aug 2025

“Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out”
Martin Scorsese

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Apocalypse horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 27 Jul to 5 Aug 2025

“Son, the greatest trick the Devil pulled was convincing the world there was only one of him.”
David Wong, John Dies at the End

What We Were Thinking About this Week

This week’s book recommendations

Theme: Light or Dark in the title

A Dark Breed by Patrick McNulty – Supernatural horror
“They had found him, and they were coming.”

Not a Speck of Light by Laird Barron – Horror collection
“It doesn’t visibly move except when I blink…”

Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz – Creature horror
“The week I saw seventeen people die didn’t begin with carnage, monsters, or a sadistic serial killer.”

After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones – Horror collection
“Here’s how you do it, if you’re brave enough.”

The Dark Thing by John Ashley – Psychological horror
“How long had it been since the dark had frightened him?”

Exit Lights by Jacob Moses – Supernatural horror
“The source of the spotlights seems to be beyond the limits of my sight.”

Dark Spirits: The Watcher by Lee Mountford – Supernatural horror
“Are we going to be doing seances and things like that?”

“How long is forever? Sometimes just one second”
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

And Now For Something Completely Different

War and Peas on Instagram

Horror-Themed Shopping

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